Restoration of Gracie The Land Rover – By Ed

Bought from the sister of a good friend, Gracie is a Land Rover with a big history. Each dint in the bodywork tells a story from long overland trips travelling down through Africa and Europe. I gave Gracie a full rebuild and make-over during my caretaker period of ownership, stripping her right down to swap out the engine and gearbox, and then rebuilding her with new modifications and a fresh bodywork repaint in red. The campervan fit-out in the back served us well for a few family holidays, before Gracie was passed on to another good village friend to receive some of his care and loving.

Rebuild and Modification of TVR Dashboard – By Ed

A 4.5ltr TVR Chimera was a natural progression from an old Land Rover – most of the parts under the bonnet of an old TVR are from the same Rover car parts bins. I enjoyed tinkering with this car – it has the feel of a kit car that can quite easily be taken apart and modified. I spent quite a while working on the dash board to upgrade the look and feel and modify some of the electronics.

Boat Renovation – By Ed

You have to be slightly bonkers to own old boats, I’ve owned three of them. Everything that can go wrong with them, will do at some point. We’ve had everything from wheels falling off boat trailers as we’ve been driving along, through to being stuck out at sea in a boat with a conked-out engine (which was a re-purposed Ford Capri 3 ltr petrol engine). Most winters are spent dealing with rust and rot (see below), but they are always worth the effort when you finally get a working boat and a lovely sunny day to wake board and water-ski on a lake with family and friends.

Wooden Canoe – Made by Savernake Explorer Scouts

I certainly can’t claim this as one of ‘our’ garage projects since it was built entirely by the Savernake Explorer Scout group (a bunch of 14-18 year olds). But as it was completed within our garage, and now permanently lives in our garage, I thought that it could slightly qualify to be included here. The wooden canoe that they built is a thing of beauty and easily seats four people during our canoe expedition trips.